In the next few weeks, you’ll hear endless grumbles from charities about the Lobbying Act. They will argue it restricts their spending on political campaigning during the run-up to general elections. Of course, charities aren’t supposed to be party-political, and until now the highly-partisan campaigns they’ve run at election time have somehow never fallen foul of charity law.
The bosses of these organisations claim they’re on a higher moral plane than other political campaigners. This allows them to dodge questions about whether they have a partisan objective. The moral high ground is built, they say, on their aims, motivation and modus operandi.
But are these charities really acting in the public interest? Many were created by entrepreneurs who in turn reward themselves handsomely. Salaries for senior personnel at big charities – mainly recruited from within the sector – are benchmarked to the very highest grades of public servant, way in excess of what many private sector CEOs earn.
In fact, large charities are often vast lobbying machines, as much creatures of the corporate world as any commercial group, and as much part of the political world as any party.
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